Laughter that Burns
by nikkiRA
Summary: Oneshot, GaleMadge/ He cracks jokes a lot because he loves to hear her laugh. She laughs even when they're not funny because she loves to see him smile.


**Hello dears, how are you? This was written for a prompt over at an anonymous Hunger Games ficathon (I'm de-anoning... oh well!). The prompt was:**

**Gale/Madge**  
_we sit here in this deadly silence / breaking vows / laughing now_

When Katniss and Peeta are in the Games, Madge has no one to eat lunch with. This is another thing Gale decides to fill in for Katniss, too.

_i'll stay until she comes back_

**_NOW! I do remember reading somewhere that Katniss didn't have lunch with Gale, and as such he wouldn't have lunch with Madge, BUT THE PROMPT WAS PRETTY AND I WANTED TO WRITE IT SO NEYUH. _**

**This will also have MOCKINGJAY SPOILERS.

* * *

**

The day after she gets chosen, he takes a personal day off of school. Everyone understands, but it doesn't stop him from feeling bad when he finds out that Prim made it to school the next day when he didn't. So the day after that, even when he feels like crawling into a hole, or running to the Capitol and stealing her back, or destroying every television in District 12, he goes to school, even though it seems like the most pointless thing in the whole entire world.

Everyone gives him a wide berth, for the most part. Some people will come up to him and give him words of support. Others will touch him tentatively on the arm, or the shoulder. But there are always eyes following him, sad eyes, pitying eyes, eyes he wants to run from.

Lunch time.

He's not even hungry. This is probably the first time in his life he hasn't been hungry, but the food in front of him is so sickening it makes him want to throw up. He pushes it away and stares at the people eating. They are all so loud. They shouldn't be so loud. Katniss is dying. They should all just _shut up. _

His eyes unconsciously seek out someone just as lonely; his ears search for someone just as quiet. Eventually he lands on the Mayor's daughter. The one he had been rude to. He doesn't feel bad for it, not really, but he knows he angered Katniss. She sits at the table and eats her lunch, and he thinks that maybe he doesn't hate her after all. Or maybe he does. He can't make sense of anything.

An unconscious mantra of _What Would Katniss Do _echoes through his mind and without stopping to think about it he picks up the tray- he's too used to being hungry to pass up food, even if it makes him sick- and makes his way over to where she's eating.

He does not say hello. He does not ask if it's okay for him to sit there. He simply sits down across from her and forces the food down his throat.

They eat in silence.

The next day, he settles down at his normal table and starts to eat. She sits across from him. He looks up at her and finds her staring back. She speaks one word to him.

"Hi."

Maybe she doesn't hate him, either.

* * *

They are the talk of the school.

Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. The talk of the school is Katniss and Peeta, sent off to their deaths. But people certainly notice them. Eyes bore into the back of his neck, Katniss Everdeen's best friend, consorting with the Mayor's daughter.

For some reason, he doesn't care.

* * *

It takes them three days to talk.

"Do you want the rest of my food?"

His stomach rumbles.

He is so above pride.

* * *

The next time, he sits down across from her and says, "How are you?'

She looks at him and does something really odd.

She smiles.

"I'm... really bad. Really bad."

A few days ago, this would have angered him. Why should she be having a bad day? But he doesn't mind so much anymore. In fact, he kind of has a strange desire to comfort her.

"I know."

* * *

They don't talk outside of the lunch table. He sees her sometimes in the streets and ignores her- on the days he sells to the Mayor, she doesn't answer the door. In the hallways, they are strangers.

They are not friends. Both of them know that.

Except at lunch.

* * *

He hears her laugh once.

It isn't even a bitter laugh. It's a genuine laugh, and it sounds so strange that he can't help but stare at her afterwards.

"I'm sorry," she whispers in response to his incredulous look. He shakes his head. His lips lift a little at the corners.

This is the closest she'll ever get to a smile, so she stores that face in her memory banks in case it never comes again.

* * *

The ice is cracking. Thawing. They are warming to each other. They talk- not about Katniss. Never about Katniss. About stupid, little mundane things, things that don't mean anything. He never talked to Katniss about stupid things like favourite colours or why Tally Saxon always screamed when she talked. He doesn't care about these things and neither does she but its nice, these useless topics.

He cracks jokes a lot because he loves to hear her laugh. She laughs even when they're not funny because she loves to see him smile.

* * *

When he hears-

When it's announced-

When the world starts spinning again-

He runs out the door before he even recognizes where he's going.

She meets him halfway.

Arms wrap around him in the middle of the street. Hands clutch his shirt. Katniss is coming home.

They won't need each other anymore.

* * *

He kisses Katniss. He tries to bring her back to him. Tries to show her that Peeta Mellark isn't the only one who loves her. That he understands everything Peeta never could.

She is unyielding beneath his hands.

He tries anyway. If at first you don't succeed.

* * *

It was an unspoken agreement, anyway. Right? I'll stay until she comes back.

She's back. She's gone. He shouldn't feel this empty. This is the first time in weeks that he's supposed to be whole.

* * *

Later-

bombs will fall. And he will try. God, he will try so hard. But he promised her first. He grabs them and he runs and he can't go back. There is no time. He will tell himself that every night when he closes his eyes, when he sees her burning. _There was no time. I tried. There was no time._

Gale Hawthorne cries once. He goes back to District 12 and he stands in front of the ghost that was her house and he cries. He does not sob. No one even notices the tears streaking down his face. But he disintegrates. He folds in on himself.

He stands there for hours, a burning home before him and laughter in his ears.


End file.
